"There's a city beneath our streets"

Managed to get a chance to fire some old maquettes I did in uni based on sewers and underground tunnels that get forgotten about.  I guess it's not really worth much now, but it's nice to think that there isn't another one of these anywhere in the world, but seeing the potential in them that I never realised is quite sad in a way.

At least they look super close to the original designs (top right corner there). I can't remember what the yellow is but it's a shame the brown stuff didn't flux properly, but that could just be down to my crazy kiln and its loath for functioning normally. It's not really very professional of me to say that I mixed some unquantified measurement of borax frit and a random something from one of the big boxes in the glaze room.

Note to self: create a digital library of test tiles for easier future reference.

Reasons why my firing did not go as planned

1. I assumed that the temperature increase on the dial was linear and forgot that heat increase from a low temperature will use a lot less power than heat increase from a higher temperature, as shown in the hastily drawn diagram above.
2. I forgot to test to see if the temperature readout was actually recording the right temperature. In theory, it could have been wrong.
3. The cutoff/soak switch does not work at all what-so-ever and the kiln reached 1365°C before I realised. The only way to restrict temperature is to adjust power input using the dial.
4. 6% on the dial does not equal 6% of the power needed to reach 1030°C (I was hoping for about 65°C) it actually came closer to 348°C so it needs a MUCH LOWER power input to warm the kiln up and get rid of moisture.
5. I should also never put it on 100% ever again, it increased the temperature from roughly 580°C to 1365°C in the space of 20 minutes.

Fortunately the slip I used was made of stronger stuff than I realised and didn't melt all over the kiln despite being low-firing. I suspect that the clay might be too fused to glaze, but I'm going to try it anyway because it can't hurt. No houses or garages were burnt in the making of this bowl. Going to attempt test tiles next.

Giggabitchin Traindriver Hat

This is a hat I got from Swanage that I've been customising by hand-stitching around the brim and sewing buttons and feathers to. I think it looks rather rad.

Happy Birthday Wendy!

Made another personalised card using collage, stitching, buttons, beads and lace trimming. Found a cute over-sized envelope in Tescos. I wouldn't mind doing birthday card commissions for a couple of quid each.

First Firing

My grandfather's kiln is now up and loaded and ready for the first test firing tomorrow. It was built in 1987 by Potterycrafts, and I have no idea if it still works properly. I'm excited because it could be the start of something amazing. I'm scared that I'm going to burn the garage down.

It only fires to one temperature (about 1020°C) and the temperature is controlled by a dial that reads 0-100 (percentage of power input).

First firing schedule is going to be: 

• around a minimum of 6 hours at 6%

• 2 hours increasing to 24%

• 2 hours increasing to 54%

• as long as it takes to reach peak temperature (100% cut-off)

Should hopefully be your bog-standard bisque firing with any luck. See how it goes.